Scattered Bits and Pieces

Playwright, songwriter, choreographer, performer and director Doniel Soto has given his new solo piece the modest title Scattered Bits and Pieces. And it is in fact a string of vignettes from all over. Soto forays into Native American-style creation myths; broad, stand-up comedy (“A bear goes into a bar … ”); even a little Shakespeare (Leontes, from Act I of The Winter’s Tale).Other characters include a gay man reflecting on life at middle age; and another man who sings a lullabye that connects him to his aging mother and his newborn child. Monologues range from pithy statements (sounding rather like proverbs), to a perky commercial rhyme. Props are minimal; the show has a shoestring budget.

But—as ever with Soto—there’s an interior plan. As you enter the theater (known as “the Space”), the playbill identifies the show as “An Evening with John Swanson,” sponsored by the Shadow Grove Mental Health Center. Swanson, we’re told, “was an educator and ‘artist,’ returning to the stage after 15 years of treatment.”

The lights don’t dim when Soto (as Swanson) shambles in nervously, unannounced. “Swanson” takes on the various characterizations, most of them intense, occasionally speaking as “himself” about the oral tradition of storytelling, or to confess he’s feeling “agitated.”

Some vignettes come around twice, the way musicians repeat phrases. Soto, ultimately, is getting at the power of memory and language. He may have stretched a little too far—I’m still figuring out how a few pieces were intended to fit in, including the Shakespeare, which has to do with cuckoldry.

As with his ensemble shows, Soto is attempting something more ambitious and abstract than your typical play. He presumes a high degree of audience concentration—casual viewers accustomed to linear plots may find Soto’s multilevel, collage-style a little disorienting, though I didn’t. And be prepared for the ending, which is dramatic.

It’s a pleasure to have Soto on the scene. He’s producing intelligent, original shows—multidisciplinary in the better sense—and he’s always ready to challenge assumptions and expectations. The man is onto something, and he’s turning the Space into a hotbed of endeavor. Check it out.

FYI: The Space is an unheated metal building. Wear a warm coat and wool cap. A few loaner blankets are available; easier to bring your own. —